The Kick Inside
by DramionePerfected
Summary: 'But beneath the surface, there was a crack in the china, one that was too small to see but ran too deep to repair.' Luna Lovegood Drabble x Please Read n Review xxxx


_Inspired by __**Kate Bush's **__first album, __**The Kick Inside. **__Amazing album. If you like Art-rock, Kate's your girl. Beautiful, tear-jerking, heart-wrenching music. Particularly the songs __**Wuthering Heights, Man With A Child In His Eyes **__and __**The Kick Inside. **__Really gets me, y'know? The fics not based on the song, just the raw, teenaged emotion within. Anyway. Enjoy. Not my best work, but oh well. DRABBLE x_

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><p><strong><em><span>The Kick Inside<span>_**

_Luna Lovegood was a giggler. She was supposed to giggle; that's what they expected her to do. She was a girl of soft elfin laughs and faraway gazes, like a nymph amongst mere mortals, a china doll with a painted smile. But there was a blemish in the china; somewhere below the flawless surface was a crack too small too see, a crack that ran too deep to repair..._

Sunshine seemed to follow Luna around Hogwarts, her head held high, a dreamy smile upon her face, daintily dodging outstretched feet and careless insults like it was second nature. Her feet were scratched and cut and blistered from the absence of shoes, stolen by her classmates; her long fair hair tangled and sticky from the Droobles gum they stuck there when they thought she wouldn't notice. They thought she'd never notice a thing, but she always did; she just never gave them the satisfaction of letting them see the hurt they had caused. Luna just sat quietly, smiling and staring into space, humming under her breath, oblivious to their confusion. But even when she had been pushed and prodded and beaten down, time and time again, all Luna wanted to do was be their friend.

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><p>Luna's only true friend had always been her mother. She was the only person she knew who was just as odd, just as curious. <em>Too<em> curious, they said. She was a hazard to herself, a danger to her daughter, they'd say. She was told she was delirious, couldn't care for a child, but Luna felt she was the best mother in the world. She didn't always care about work, or bills, or anything considered 'important' or 'part of her responsibility' for that matter, but she always, always cared about Luna, always put her first, always prepared to give it all in a moment. She was a strange kind of mother, in that way. It was always her that made sure Luna was always laughing, smiling; always content. Luna's life had always been a walk in the sun, until one day, the clouds rolled in.

She had been sent out to play. Her father had been out on an expedition, beginning his research that would soon become a major part of his daughter's life. Her mother, for the first time that Luna could remember, was really busy; a glint in her eye as she busied around the cottage. "Now," she had said, "This should do the trick…"  
>A piercing scream echoed across the fields, to be followed by an eternal silence. From that moment on, Luna's world was mute.<p>

Luna's mother was her first ceiling portrait. She had been in her room for days; no-one could get her to eat, to sleep, even to look them in the eye. The ceiling was so bare; it was the only place she couldn't reach, and Xenophilius wouldn't let her climb for risk of falling. Luna scrambled to the top of the cabinet, paintbrush in hand. When almost finished, Luna looked down; remembering something her mother had said when she was young, when she had been afraid, _"If ever you're troubled, if ever you feel your about to fall, just remember - I'll always be there to catch you." _With that, Luna released her grip on the cabinet, and plummeted to the floorboards below.

Luna had woken in St. Mungo's, her legs shattered from the impact of falling through the rotting wood to the cottage's foundations. Her father leaned over her sadly, looking as if he had aged ten years in ten minutes. "My little Lulu." he sighed, stroking her hair. "What are we going to do with you?" Luna had been given potions for the pain, but the pain never seemed to arrive; to her it was just a dull ache in her stomach, her heart. Xenophilius shook his head again, whispering softly, "People can't always be there to catch you when you fall."

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><p>On starting Hogwarts, Xenophilius's words stuck with her. She decided it was better to ignore the stares, the pushing and shoving, the name-calling. She decided it was her who had to hold herself together, however fragile she might be. Whenever they came for her, she would hide, smiling softly to passersby to mask the pain, the pain of rejection, the pain of loss, like a kicking deep inside. <em>But when they had gone, and Luna was alone, the walls came crashing down, and the music was replaced with the tears that made the tune of her bitter-sweet lullaby.<em>

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><p><em><strong>Review, please? Short but sweet, yeah? Hopefully you thought so too. Much love x<strong>_


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